Mainly on the Plane
Back from GenCon, on to Spain | 7 August 2026
Gettin’ Rolled at GenCon
Those carnivorous ducks I mentioned earlier have been in for a nibble.
We are but recently back from GenCon in Indianapolis, which was fantastic and overwhelming. Fanwhelming? Overtastic? Yes, both of those. I have been to GenCon quite a few times now— in fact, off the top of my head, I’ve lost count. Every year I have the same experience of forgetting exactly what it felt like the previous times, and getting bowled over once again. GenCon is an ever-refreshing kick in the paradigms.
Although it isn’t the very largest convention in existence (I’m pretty sure that the San Diego and New York ComicCons are both more vast, SDCC very certainly) the scale of it is still astonishing. A cosmic labyrinth of a convention center and all adjacent hotels taken over, plus the entire floor of Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Indianapolis Colts play. The sheer volume of activity, the playtest demos being run, the panels being crammed, the walls of hyper-colorful game boxes being stacked from floor to ceiling, then unstacked, actually makes me feel my age. I love playing with my hobby game designs, but I feel a melancholy relief that my plans for them do not involve releasing them into that vast technicolor shark tank and defending their honor to ever-shifting crowds for ten hours a day.
Although I know there must inevitably be attendees who catch a bad beat, I enjoy vicariously basking in the general air of positivity and excitement. Even as the days drive on and the physical and emotional fatigue mounts, GenCon is still tens of thousands of people looking to have a good time, willing to have one, and most importantly eager to share that good time with others. I love seeing gamers ensconced at restaurants and hotel lobbies, as ubiquitous as normal people checking their phones (I almost typed “reading newspapers,” but it is Current Year, dear readers. Current Year).
I am thoroughly grateful to everyone who came out to my signing on Saturday morning, at the far back of the exhibit hall, approximately nine miles from the Paizo booths at the main doors. Back where they keep the eccentrics, the cast-outs, the lost and the damned, the maniacs. The writers. Attendees of the signing got to see me breaking my one unbreakable convention rule that I always break (“don’t take a shower immediately before running to an event”), which meant that I looked like I was freshly drowned.
Any brief pangs of pride I felt at the size of my line were promptly crushed by the formation of R.A. Salvatore’s line nearby, which was probably good for my moral development. In happier news, some thirty-odd years after my high school gamer buddies made me read the Icewind Dale trilogy (of which I have fond memories), I finally got to meet Bob and chat for a moment.
It’s the Final Countdown (for Hugo Voting)
Voting for the Hugo Awards closes at noon PST tomorrow— Saturday, August 8.
The Hugos are one of the preeminent awards in speculative fiction, and to vote, all you need to do is buy a $50 supporting membership to the World Science fiction convention here: lacon.org/register
This will not be of use for much longer, but purchasing a membership does get you a digital packet containing all of the nominated works, including large piles of novels from the Best Series category.
As mentioned before, my own “Kaiju Agonistes” is up for Best Novelette; don’t join up and vote just for my sake (if I win this sort of thing, which I do not expect to happen often, I’d prefer to do so via honest enthusiasm rather than log-rolling) but if you are voting, and you still haven’t locked it all in, just don’t forget little ‘ol me, hmmm? As long as you liked the story.
Also, every vote helps direct attention to the field as a whole and give you a chance to nurture categories where the voting pool is historically smaller than for “big-ticket” items like Best Novel or Best Dramatic Presentation.
Worldcon Kick-Off
Although I’ll post my full Worldcon schedule in detail in my next newsletter, I should mention that my wife and I will be participants in a mass author signing at Barnes and Noble at the Outlets at Orange in Orange, CA from 5 - 8 PM on Thursday, August 27th. We’ll be there with Jeremy Szal, MJ Kuhn, Evan Leikam, Ai Jiang, Michael Michel, and Alex Shvartsman— you don’t need to be attending Worldcon to visit us here. Also feel free to bring stuff! I’ll be signing at the con, but I’ll also place no reasonable limits on signing here.
Aloft on Wings of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer
With that, my wife and I are about to depart for Spain. Yes, Spain. Iberian Peninsula Spain. This is a purely personal trip; we are vanishing for a week and not telling anyone in the publishing industry where to find us. Although I expect to be tapping away at my keyboard a great deal, I will be doing it in the shadows of mountains and near the glow of beaches. Chao, amigos. I’ll be in touch.
Oh I do hope you get to see the total eclipse on the 12th over yonder! Having had the fortune of seeing the one here in the US a few years back, I can’t recommend that experience enough.